McGee's Bad Inning Isn't Like Him

If Jake McGee had been able to take back one pitch, it wouldn't have been the cutter hit by Chris Davis for a three-run home run that pretty much sealed Tuesday's 7-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

By DICK SCANLONTHE LEDGER

ST. PETERSBURG | If Jake McGee had been able to take back one pitch, it wouldn't have been the cutter hit by Chris Davis for a three-run home run that pretty much sealed Tuesday's 7-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.The pivotal mistake, according to the Rays' best left-handed relief pitcher, had come a few pitches earlier, a 98 mph fastball on an 0-2 count that he couldn't get past Adam Jones."If I would have made a good pitch to Jones on 0-2, and he pops it up or swings through it, we could have won the game by one run," McGee said. "I think that was the turning point of everything, pretty much."Jones hit it for a two-run double that put the Orioles up 4-3 in the seventh inning. Whether it was bad pitch selection or just a bad pitch doesn't matter much when they add up the final score.Joe Maddon didn't think the pitch to Jones was necessarily a mistake."A lot of times that ball, thrown at 98, is thrown (past) a hitter," the Rays manager said. "You've got to give the hitter credit right there. Jake had great stuff, got two ground balls up the middle (for singles) and a guy squares up on a 98 mph fastball."When the count reached 0-2, the odds certainly favored McGee, who had a 1.95 earned run average in 69 games last season and had never given up more than three runs in a game.The problem was that Jones was geared up for that fastball, having seen McGee throw three straight pitches at 97 mph or above. The first of them had struck out Manny Machado for the second out of the inning, and the next two had blown past Jones, leaving the Orioles one pitch away from squandering another good scoring opportunity. At that point they had nine hits, but had not scored since Matt Wieters' two-run home run in the first inning."We put ourselves in a lot of opportunities, we just didn't get the hit," Jones said. "I figured look at the bright side — we're getting all these opportunities, we're going to get a hit eventually."The bright side came in the form of a blazing fastball too much in the strike zone, and Jones took a healthy hack."Fortunately, it was a good pitch to hit and I put a good swing on it," he said.We'll never know what would have happened if McGee, with a couple of pitches to waste, had crossed up Jones with a slider, or if he had thrown the fastball out of the strike zone in an attempt to get Jones to chase it. The only thing we know is what did happen."I was ahead 0-2 and it just leaked over the plate a little too much," McGee said. "It was the right pitch; he swung through the pitch before that. I just have to have better location ... even if I walk Adam Jones right there, we'd still have the lead by one."For McGee to get stung for five runs, after he gave up 12 runs all last season, was a little weird. Right-handers, like Jones, hit .098 against McGee last year, the lowest batting average of righties against a left-handed pitcher since 1974. That was then. There are 161 games left and in all likelihood, McGee will be effective in most of them. Tuesday's horrid inning was either an aberration or a not-so-subtle reminder that last year's consistently excellent relief pitching was nothing to be taken for granted.